September 2013

På tide å blogge litt igjen!

I helgen var jeg på tur sammen med alle lærerne på skolen til en by som heter Qingyuan, og som er kjent for varme kilder. Grunnen til at vi dro, var for å feire Teacher's Day, som var nå på tirsdag. Vi bodde på en stor ressort, og hadde fri tilgang til alle de små kildene som alle hadde ulike ting blandet i seg. Noen eksempler var rosebasseng, kaffebasseng og potpourri-basseng. Det var også et stort bølgebasseng der, men dessverre var vi der aldri når bølgene var på. Til sammen var vi vel ca 80 lærere, og vi tre utenlandske fikk endelig snakket litt med de andre lærerne. Det er veldig mange unge lærere på skolen, så veldig mange er på vår alder!

I går kveld var vi på KTV og sang karaoke sammen med de lærerne som ville, og det var som vanlig gøy! Til og med rektoren på skolen ble med Det ble litt mye kinesiske sanger etter hvert, men alt i alt var det er veldig morsom kveld! I dag hadde vi igjen tilgang til de varme kildene, før vi spiste lunsj og tok fatt på den to timer lange bussturen hjemover.

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Time to blog again!

This weekend was spent in the city of Qingyuan, where all the teachers at our school enjoyed a weekend at the hot springs resort. The reason why we went was to celebrate Teacher's Day, which was this Tuesday. The hot springs were really nice! There were lots of small pools with different smells. Last night we went to KTV and sang some karaoke with some of the other teachers. Even the principal joined! It was a lot of fun

Today we once again enjoyed the hot springs before we ate lunch and went on the two-hour bus ride back to Foshan.

The resort we stayed at!

Yuki and Maple

Yuki

Louisa and Jeanie

A sign in the woods: ??

Beautiful scenery!!

All the teachers having dinner

Jeanie and Kaka

Me, Jayne and Louisa at dinner

KTV! I know it's blurry..

Vicky, who is the head of the English department, me, the School Principal, Louisa and Jayne at KTV

Hei!

Jeg gikk rundt og tok noen bilder på campus i lunsjen i dag. Alle barna lå og sov (de sover en time i lunsjen), så derfor ser det ganske tomt ut

I went around in my lunch break today and took some photos around campus. All the kids were down for their nap, so it looks empty

Skolen ser ganske moderne ut egentlig.
The school looks quite modern from the northern entrance.

Utsikten fra bygningen vi bor i, mot barneskolen.
This is the view towards the primary school building from the stairwell in the dorm where I live.

Dette er barnehagen, som ligger helt sør på campus. Dette bildet er også tatt fra bygningen jeg bor i.
This is the kindergarten building, located south on campus.

Det er masse plakater rundt om kring her, dette er en av de som henger på barnehagen.
A poster on the kindergarten building.

Lekeapparat utenfor barnehagen.
Kindergarten courtyard

Kantinen hvor vi får tre måltider om dagen. Vi spiser sammen med alle barna og alle andre ansatte, så det blir både fullt og veldig bråkete under måltidene.
This is the school canteen where we are provided with three meals a day. All the staff and the students eat together.

Basket er veldig stort i Kina.
Basketball is very popular here.

Klasserom på barneskolen.
One of the classrooms in the primary school

Hello from Foshan!

(Denne posten er bare på engelsk. Grunnen til det er latskap og kjedsomhet.)

We arrived at the train station in Guangzhou early Monday morning after a 22-hour train ride from Beijing. The train ride was not too bad, as I was able to sleep a lot of the time. There was not much space except in our beds, so luckily I had a season of the Big Bang Theory and I'm also pretty good at sleeping anywhere

We were met by our school contact Emma at the train station, and from there we took a taxi to the school in Foshan. That took about 40 minutes, so we're not far from Guangzhou at all. When I say we, it is Louisa from England (who was in the same training program a me in Beijing), Jayne from Ireland (who took the training course online, and who I therefore just met) and me. We're the three foreign English teachers here at Nanguang International School. The school is quite fancy. It's a boarding school, so about 50% of the students board from Monday to Friday. Even some of the kindergarten kids board!! The age of the students range from 2-12, where 2-5 is kindergarten, and 6-12 is primary school. It looks new and modern, and there is a big football field between the kindergarten and the primary school, as well as basketball courts, badminton courts and just in general a lot of space.

After we arrived at the school, we were shown to our rooms, which are also on campus. It's actually quite nice! My room is big, I would guess like 25 square meters, and I have my own private bathroom, which even has a washing machine in it! I also have air-condition, a fridge and a TV. After cleaning myself in to western cleaning standard, I could finally unpack my dead heavy bags. SO sick of carrying them around! I also have a mosquito tent around my bed, which makes it look like a princess castle :D So awesome!

Photo taken with photo booth, therefore the crappy quality. But you can see the princess castle, that's the point.

So anyways, we got to know our classes yesterday, because teaching started today. I have 1st grade kindergarten, and 5th and 6th grade primary. That means that I teach the kids that just started kindergarten, so the youngest kid is 1 year and 5 months, and they are all maximum 3 years old. I had my first lessons today, and it was quite challenging. But I think we're gonna have a good time together when we get to know each other a bit better and I get a better sense of what they know and what their abilities are. I teach all four classes of 1st year kindergarten, and there is about 30 students in each class I think. I only teach these classes for 20 minutes each time, since the kids are so young.

The other classes I teach are all four classes A-D in 5th grade, and all four classes A-D in 6th grade. I taught three classes today, and it was fun! The students are overall quite clever for their age, and this is after all a school that focuses a lot on English. These classes are 40 minutes per lesson, and we had a lot of fun today What's also good about there classes is that I can use the same lesson plan for all 8 classes Just make it a bit more advanced with the 6-graders.

I went to China to get out of my comfort zone and get a real challenge, and I sure did!! And this was just the first day. Sometimes I really hate that I do these things to myself, but most of the time I know how much it gives me in return

And also, I will try to take some photos tomorrow, don't have any yet as I have been too busy!